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1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to an insert for use in a storm water basin to filter debris and pollutants from storm water run-off. Storm water collection systems are located throughout our city streets and parking lots providing flood control and drainage. The storm water needs to be as free as possible from pollutants before it enters our natural water systems.
To ensure that our water sources are protected, our handling of storm water is becoming more regulated. In order to meet these concerns, many inventions have been patented that provide an anti-pollution insert for catch basins and manholes. Most of these inventions are unnecessarily expensive complex, and sometimes ineffective.
2. Description of Prior Art
Caldwell (U.S. Pat. No. 1,310,055) discloses a storm water device to strain out large debris such as sticks and leaves allowing them to be broken up before passing down stream or be removed manually. This apparatus is ineffective in separating sand or small particulate such as cigarette filters from the storm water before flowing downstream from the opening.
A. Levy (U.S. Pat. No. 1,746,121) and George F. Egan (U.S. Pat. No. 2,102,310) show a receptacle for mounting below a storm water inlet. The large basket is constructed of metal. It is heavy and very complex. This would be very expensive to manufacture. They both require large equipment to install, and maintain.
F. Lane (U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,526) shows a basket mounted entirely below a catch basin grate. It comprises a rigid metal frame for the basket, which is suspended from rods secured directly to the bottom of the grate. This would be very time consuming and awkward to install. A grate is already heavy and hard to handle. The frame when attached to the grate would be difficult to install without damaging the metal frame. Furthermore, its complexity makes it expensive to manufacture.
Oscar S. Amtyr et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,232) shows a double basket mounted entirely beneath a storm drain opening with grate. The device is unnecessarily complex. The initial top screen basket is unnecessary. It removes pollutants that would have been removed by the below second filter anyway. The second stage basket cannot be serviced or emptied by hand unless the whole frame is removed. The ridged frame cannot be easily adapted to the various sizes of grates or accommodate typical angular distortions. The frame with its descending circumference is unnecessarily complex and expensive to manufacture. There is no provision for a bypass to accommodate high flows or filter failure.
Logue, Jr. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,925) and John F. Harris et al. (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/769,212 Group Art unit 1724) shows a basket essentially below the grate of a drain opening. A substantial amount of the apparatus extends above the grate. This can be a traffic hazard, and the apparatus would be vulnerable to wear and vandalism. Furthermore, the devices shown in Logue and Harris do not provide an overflow bypass. Accordingly, during high storm water flows and filter failure these systems would cause water to back up onto the street.
Holly S McDermott (U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,691) shows a receptacle entirely below a storm water inlet with a perforated cover. The receptacle however is limited in pollutant storage capacity. There are four separate baskets, one on each corner, which makes it time consuming to service. They need to be manually emptied since they are too small for being serviced by a typical large street-vacuuming machine. The fixed frame mounting does not easily adjust to the various distorted angles encountered in many rectangular storm water inlet openings at the installation sites. The drain basins are often out of square or of slightly different measurements than anticipated. The frame is unnecessarily expensive to manufacture. The pollutant sock is small in size and would quickly saturate.
Page (U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,974), shows a basin insert mounted bellow a catch basin comprising four separate rigid members for mounting on the catch basin grate ledges. This invention is dependent upon a metal bridge, which is placed over the bypass opening adding unnecessarily expense to the cost of manufacturing. The basin insert is supported on only two of the four sides. The horizontal bypass tends to allow large objects to float overtop of the bypass and into the basin below. The bag needs to be positioned a distance away from the flat walls of the basin sides in order to provide adequate room for the water to pass between the basket and the basin walls.
Accordingly, there is a need for a basin insert which is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install, remove, service and can be cut to size on the job site.
Referring to FIG. 1, the invention is a basin insert, for use with a storm water drain basin having a perforated cover and cover support ledges, comprising: a filter bag assembly having a filter bag, support sleeves, overflow bypasses located at the corners of the filter bag, which in turn are placed in the corners of the inlet drain basin, and support members, which are inserted through the support sleeves. The filter bag assembly is formed form a continuous roll of filtering material. Cutting a section from continuous roll of filtering material and then lying bottom forms the filter bag assembly.
Another embodiment of the invention is a method to filter storm water run-off entering a drain basin using a continuous roll of filtering material.